


father's joy

by tigriswolf



Series: comment_fic drabbles [225]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Accidental Clone Acquisition, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Future Fic, M/M, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, happy happy joy joy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2015-02-17
Packaged: 2018-02-24 02:33:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2565089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On his roaring rampage of revenge, the ex-Winter Soldier found an infant with the ex-target's hair and eyes.  He decided to keep her. </p><p>Fifteen years later, she brings home a boy.  [There is no angst here.]</p><p>[there are, however, surprise guests showing up at the wedding]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title: father’s joy  
> Disclaimer: only the kids are mine  
> Warnings: way post-WS  
> Pairings: Bucky/Steve, OFC/OMC, past surprise pairing  
> Rating: PG  
> Wordcount: 1000  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: any, any, one character/couple's child is dating another character/couple's child

The first time Abigail comes home ranting about "that Lewis boy," Jim didn't think much of it. Or the second, or the third. 

But the fourth time, she pauses in the door of the kitchen and blushes when Jim looks up, that same blush her daddy has, and Jim thinks, _Oh, fuck_.

.

This isn’t at all the life Jim thought he’d have, back when he was on the run from everybody, blowing the shit out of Hydra, trying to figure out who and what he was. He was playing hide and seek with Steve across the world, half a step ahead of the various governments that wanted him, either to wring him dry or string up him. 

He found Abigail in the very last base he blew all to hell, a tiny little baby with Steve’s hair and eyes, and he made sure to execute every single Hydra bastard there before carrying her out and triggering the failsafe that wiped it (and all its data) off the map. 

Abigail is fifteen, now. Bucky Barnes died in the Alps, and the asset died in DC, and it took all of Captain America’s pull and Tony Stark’s lawyers and the Black Widow’s implicit threats to let Jim have the life he has now, with his daughter. And with Steve. 

.

“So, that Lewis boy?” Jim asks, pushing the small plate with the brownie across the table as he sits. 

Abigail’s blush deepens and she ducks her head. 

Steve’s at work, teaching his evening class at the community college, and Abigail _should_ be at her marksman course, but – 

“So, he a good kisser?” Jim asks with a smirk. 

“Pop!” she shouts, blushing so red, the exact same shade Steve did the first time Bucky Barnes kissed him. 

Jim laughs. “Tell me about him unless you want me to call Jarvis up,” he says, leaning back in the chair, getting comfortable. 

.

That Lewis boy’s first name is _Amund_ , which Jim just shrugs at. He’s got amazing green eyes and he’s hilarious (now; before, he was just a jerk) and he’s so smart that Abigail’s the only one who can keep up with him, and they run rings around every teacher they share. 

“What about his parents?” Jim asks. He’s still going to talk to Jarvis, of course, because Abigail is the most important person in the whole world (with Steve _barely_ behind her, but Steve feels the same). 

Abigail shrugs. “His mom is one of the scientist wranglers at Uncle Tony’s company, and his dad – well, his dad’s not around much. But he’s a freelance something or other.” 

“Okay,” Jim says. “Don’t forget that trick your Auntie Tash taught you, and if he hurts you, I’ll kill him.” He grins at her nod. “Good. Have fun, kid.” 

.

Steve is all excited, of course, because it’s their baby girl’s first love. He seems to have forgotten how _his_ first love went, but if a war starts up and there’s mad scientists, Jim is going to be very angry and possibly blow things up again. 

Abigail eventually brings the Lewis boy home for a ‘study date’ (and, yes, he hears the finger quotes). Jim trusts his daughter, but he still wants to make sure Amund Lewis knows _exactly_ who Abigail’s fathers are, so he’s sure to be home. (He’s the tester for whatever crazy shit Stark comes up with because, after Abigail, he refused to fight anymore, unless he absolutely had to. Steve retired a year later, too.)

“Pop, this is Amund,” Abigail says, holding hands with a tall, pale boy. “Amund, this is my pop, Jim Grant.” 

“Good to meet you, sir,” Amund says. “Abigail told me you were in special ops?” 

“Yes,” Jim says with a smile. “I was.” 

Amund nods. “Noted.” He looks down at Abigail. “Where are we studying, then?” 

Jim chuckles. He decides, based on this preliminary meeting, he likes the kid. 

.

When Steve gets home, he tells Amund to talk to his mother about everyone getting together for dinner. “I will, sir,” Amund says seriously. He shakes both Steve and Jim’s hands, kisses Abigail on the cheek, and leaves. 

“Isn’t he amazing?” Abigail sighs. 

“He seems alright,” Jim says. Steve smiles at him. 

.

Amund’s mother is a firecracker named Darcy Lewis. Steve knows her, and they spend most of dinner gossiping about Steve’s old team. 

His father – well, Darcy doesn’t mention him at all, and neither does Amund. 

.

Amund’s father comes to the wedding, though. 

“Brother?” Thor gapes, and Steve’s eyes widen, hand going for the shield he no longer carries. 

“I am here in peace,” the stranger – Thor’s brother? Loki? – says, hands spread. He nods towards the front, where Amund and his groomsmen are gathering. “I have come to see my son wed. I do not want to ruin the day with a quarrel.” 

“You’re dead,” Steve says. 

Loki smirks. “Oh, yes, very much so,” he agrees. “Everyone knows that.” He focuses on Jim and holds out a hand. “Amund’s father,” he says. 

Jim shakes his hand. “Abigail’s pop.” 

.

Darcy hugs Loki, and Amund, too, and Steve’s old team clearly want to fight, but for the kids’ sake, they don’t. Loki vanishes immediately after the ceremony and everyone but Jim descends on Darcy, demanding answers. Even Steve gets caught up in the craze. 

Jim, though, hangs back and visits with the rest of the guests, and makes sure nobody bothers Amund on his big day. Abigail helps with that, too; she’s got Steve’s fighting spirit and always has, but it’s Jim’s cold determination that really shines through tonight. 

.

 

Abigail and Amund’s first child is named Rikolv James Lewis-Grant and he’s got Abigail’s blue eyes and Amund’s (finally unhidden) talent with magic. 

He’s a handful, just like his ma and grandparents on both sides. 

Jim, of course, adores him. And if Loki sometimes pops by when Jim’s watching him, well. That’s for no one else to know. 

Jim hands Ricky to his _other_ other grandpa and smiles as the aloof man melts at their grandson’s babbling.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title: father’s joy   
> Disclaimer: only the kids are mine  
> Warnings: way post-WS  
> Pairings: Bucky/Steve, OFC/OMC, past surprise pairing  
> Rating: PG  
> Wordcount: 1420  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: Any. Any gen. The awkwardness of raising your clone as your child.

Three months after Ultron, a year after DC, Steve’s phone rings with _unknown caller_ flashing on its screen.

He answers, of course, even though Natasha would probably roll her eyes at him, and says, “Hello?” 

It’s the best phone call he’s ever gotten in his life (not that he’s gotten many) because Bucky’s on the other end, and Bucky says, “Steve, I need your help.”

.

Bucky found a baby in a Hydra base. No one except Steve wants him to keep her, this little blonde wisp of a thing, so damn tiny in Bucky’s hold. But the only one who could possibly take her from him is Steve, and Steve isn’t about to do that. He plants himself beside Bucky (Jim, he wants to be called _Jim_ ) and with a heavy sigh, Natasha goes to work, and Stark, and within three weeks, the Winter Soldier is dead and Jim Grant has a daughter named Abigail. 

Abigail, Jim says, looks just like Steve. Steve doesn’t see it. But a few (painless, non-invasive) tests show that she is a 100% genetic match for Steve. Jarvis also finds evidence that there had been others before her, but she is the only one to ever survive. 

He tells Jim the first part, but not the second. Jim knows Hydra better than Steve ever could, though, so Steve’s sure he already knew. 

.

Jim refuses to join the Avengers or SHIELD. He refuses every government offer to join their program. He tells Steve, “I’m done fightin’ ‘cept as a last resort,” holding Abigail to his shoulder as he burps her. 

Steve says, “Okay,” and goes to ask Tony for a favor. 

.

In the beginning, there were some agencies clamoring for the Winter Soldier’s arrest and trial. Some agents were sent after him because their governments didn’t care about the trial. 

Even if someone managed to catch him and hold him, it didn’t matter to Steve who had to tear apart to see him free again. And if anyone managed to kill him -- 

But Jim Grant is not the Winter Soldier. He’s not even Bucky Barnes. He’s a doting father who enjoys shows about baby sloths and interior decorating and teaches himself to bake ridiculous cakes. He’s still the love of Steve’s life. 

On the six-month anniversary of Jim calling Steve, Jim puts Abigail down for her nap, pulls Steve into his arms, and they shuffle around the living room as Sam’s dance music playlist plays, and Jim murmurs, “Marry me, Stevie.” 

. 

They get married. After the third time Steve comes home from an Avengers mission barely alive, he retires. Director Coulson tries to blame Jim, but Jim had never asked him to quit, just silently held him or crooned assurances that he’d be better soon or blamed himself for not being there to watch Steve’s back the way he had when they were kids or during the war. 

But Steve missed Abigail’s first step. First word. He missed Jim moving on from baking to full-on multi-course meals. Jim got a job at Stark’s company as a tester for Stark’s inventions, and he also trains Stark’s security people and occasionally others who go through Pepper, and he’s also been taking classes, and Abigail is getting so big, when did that happen? She’s a stubborn little thing and Jim always laughs that’s the Rogers in her. 

Except… Steve retires from SHIELD and then he goes to Pepper and he asks, “Is there a way to quietly drop the Rogers from my name?” 

.

Sam steps up to become Captain America. Steve Grant, husband of Jim and father of Abigail, goes back to school to try and figure out who he is when he’s no longer Captain America.

Abigail looks just like him; of course she does. She’s nowhere near as sickly, though, and while she has his temper and his sense of humor, she prefers science and math to drawing (though she’s not half-bad at sketching) and while she’ll always stand up to bullies, she prefers getting even to fighting right then. 

Also, she asks her Pop to teach her how to shoot when she’s twelve. Jim is Pop and Steve is Dad, and he sometimes feels like he’s an outsider, but Jim always realizes that and pulls him back in. It’s just… 

“C’mon, punk, she’s our girl,” Jim says. “She loves you.” He lightly taps Steve’s forehead with his metal fingers. “You just get so wrapped up in things, Stevie.” 

Abigail is fourteen and Steve barely sees her because there’s so much to do at work. So he cuts back the classes he teaches and makes sure there’s at least one night a week that he’s at home, and every Sunday, he spends the full afternoon with her. 

It’s awkward at first, but they have the same sense of humor and they like the same foods, and she asks for stories about when he and Jim were young. (She knows who they were, of course, before they were Steve and Jim Grant. She’s not stupid or blind.) So he talks about being two kids in Brooklyn, one boy who was always getting in fights and another who was always pulling his friend out. Steve and Abigail to art galleries and Stark Industries labs and they play frisbee in the park and when he recounts their adventures to Jim later, smiling at his husband while their daughter is devouring another book about space, he thinks, _This is what I fought so hard for_. 

.

Abigail doesn’t have the serum. She stops growing at thirteen, barely five foot four. She keeps her hair short and wears contacts to correct her vision (except the days when she has headaches, so she wears glasses instead), and while she’s healthy, Steve knows she’ll always look frail. 

She’s also been trained by the Black Widow, two different Captain Americas, and the ex-Winter Soldier, and always wears a pendant that has Jarvis in it, so if something happens, all of the Avengers will know and respond immediately. She knows how to shoot and use knives. She can handle herself, if need be. 

That doesn’t keep Steve from worrying. 

.

Abigail brings home her first and last boy when she’s fifteen. He’s polite and smart, and Steve and Jim both like him. Abigail dates Amund through the rest of high school, through college, and through her Ph.D. in Engineering. Amund himself gets a BA in English and then a teaching certificate and goes to work at a non-profit that helps people with literacy. 

Abigail and Amund get married when they’re twenty-nine and Steve cries his way through the ceremony, even keeping one eye on Loki (who Thor and Odin had both sworn was dead), who is apparently Amund’s father. Loki is _also_ crying, elegantly dabbing at his eyes with a tasteful handkerchief, and he is completely ignoring everyone but the kids. 

After the wedding, after Loki hugs Amund and Abigail, he disappears. All of the Avengers (and ex-Avengers) swoop down on Darcy, and later, Steve will be disappointed in himself but he remembers the Battle of Manhattan, when Loki let an army in. 

Darcy just crosses her arms and holds her head high and finally says, “I didn’t know it was him till he came back when Amund was born. He’s visited Amund every week for twenty-nine years, which is more than some dads do. So if you’re not gonna take me into custody, fuck off and let me congratulate my kid, okay?” 

.

Amund has magic. Apparently, Abigail has known the whole time. 

“Well, duh,” she says, watching Amund’s illusion of a dragon chase Amund’s illusion of a griffin around the living room. “We talk about everything, Dad.” She shrugs. “I don’t get why it’s such a big deal.” 

Jim just laughs and then asks Amund, “Can you make Gojira next?” 

“Of course,” Amund says, flicking his fingers.

.

Steve cries the first time he holds his first grandchild. He’s got baby blue eyes, of course, but they never change. He’s a tiny little thing and it was thirty years ago that Jim called Steve because he’d found their daughter, a wisp of a thing. 

“You sap,” Jim says, leaning in close, and then to the baby, “Your granddaddy’s the biggest sap in the world and don’t you forget it.” 

Abigail laughs and Amund kisses her forehead and Steve is just so damned happy. He looks down at his grandson and then he looks at Jim, who’s still grinning at the baby, and he thinks, _Thank you_.


End file.
